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I've just come back from work in Nepal - luckily I was able to take my family with me and the pics I've posted is of my son sleeping with his new Nepali mate, an orphaned Indian Rhino who was being looked after by our hosts the Nepali National Trust.
That trip was a nice break from almost back to back mammal/bird tours that have been running since end of September.
Lots of great sightings - but here are a series of great vids taken by Justin Brown and Linden Stear of mammals at Ruoergai and Tangjiahe. Those Mountain Cat shots are some of the very few taken of this animal - that trip found two new Mountain Cat sites.
The trip got up to Foping where we watched Golden Snub-nosed Monkey at two sites - the monkey video is mine.

Great report Andy - those Red Pandas have shown well this autumn - and the Barwing and Wren Babbler are terrific birds

I've attached a wonderful pic of November Red Panda pair taken by Hugh Lansdown. We made 7 trips to reserve this autumn and saw them from Mid October to December 29th. All the best views were of animals feeding high up in berry bearing trees.
Its also worth noting that Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel are another good find - you can see them on the cliffs, going uphill and on the opposite side of the river from the hotel. Another mammal we found was Chinese Ferret Badger - while the caves about 2km uphill from the hotel hold bats. A French guest, Romain Bocquier, identified them as - Nepalese whiskered bat (Myotis muricola), Big-eared horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus macrotis) and Greater tube-nosed bat (Murina leucogaster)

Hugh Lansdown made 3 trips with us last year - Qinghai, Labahe and a combined Shaanxi and Tangjiahe - and has published a superb series of photo reports on his website at hughlansdown.com

Yes, the Saker Falcon shot is incredible, and the Red Pandas one is very nice too.

I’ve a question regarding using bird feeders in Sichuan. During the summer I bought my father-in-law a seed feeder and a nut feeder, and I was a little surprised when he told me the other day he’s had no success yet at attracting birds. I wonder if anybody has had success with bird feeders or otherwise has some advice?

In the seed feeder are those small seeds that are given to captive Huamei (maybe millet of sorghum?) and in the nut feeder are peanuts. Both are hanging from trees in the garden, next to a river. I’ve seen plenty of Tree Sparrow, Grey-capped Greenfinch and White-rumped Munia, which I would have thought might’ve been tempted by the seed (especially the sparrow!). Not so far away there is woodland, and I was thinking of Green-backed Tit and Yellow-bellied Tit when I bought the nut feeder.

I guess elsewhere where bird feeders are common many species have developed a ‘culture’ of using them, and most birds learn about this resource from seeing others rather than discovering them independently. So perhaps it’s just a matter of waiting and hoping for an intrepid sparrow or tit to realise it’s hit the jackpot?

I haven't had any more success than you, Dahe, but to a great degree to the Chinese family not being cooperative about the idea of feeding wild birds. They may have a point in worrying about it attracting rats. The other thing is that birds here in China have learned to be very afraid of human contact. I don't see the little boys with captured Tits or Sparrows with a string tied around their leg very often anymore, but birds do still have to be very wary of humans. I did get started with feeding wild birds as a child though as my mother was very big on it and insisted on my learning to identify any visitors that we had and normally had feeders with large numbers of visiting birds in the US.

Getting the first few visitors is the hardest part. Having a very shallow pan of clean water near where you want to feed and view is one of the best ways to attract the first birds. 1-2 cm deep with a few flat stones or such for them to land on and stand on is ideal. They can see the sunlight reflecting off the water as they fly over and will come to bathe. Sometimes at first you also need to just put a small amount of seed more openly where the birds flying by might notice it. They simply may not recognize a feeder as being a source of food at first.

The white millet, as opposed to the red, should be of interest to seed eaters, I would expect and is usually the main component of cage bird food that I have seen here. Red millet, in my experience, only is eaten by ground feeders like doves or pigeons. Peanuts, unless broken into very small chips will usually only attract a few species. Larger birds like Magpie or woodpeckers will take even peanuts in the shell. You might try sunflower seeds. I know that in the US the Black-capped Chickadee, (a North American Tit), absolutely love them. In fact it is the single best feeder food that I have found and they are easily and cheaply available in China. You want raw sunflower seed though, not having been roasted or salted.

It can take time. It took about three months for the birds to start using the last feeders I set up for my brother despite the neighbors already having bird feeders. However my youngest brother set up his own feeders the same summer and immediately started getting a good array of species.

Thanks for your thoughts Owen, good to hear your brothers are having some success.

Yes, I have wondered about historic hunting and how that might affect modern bird behaviour. I was recently in the US and I noticed that often birds seemed significantly tamer than in the UK. In Sichuan I think they might be even more skittish than in the UK. You would think this reflects historic hunting pressure, or level of persecution - but perhaps I am imagining a difference to suit a nice hypothesis.

I will pass on your advice to my father-in-law. The good news is he uses the white millet, which I'll ask him to periodically scatter around – surely it won’t be long before the sparrows cotton on that it's coming from the feeder, and then hopefully other species will learn by observing the sparrow.

The bird bath is a good idea, though I wonder if it’ll become a mosquito breeding habitat. Perhaps if he lets it dry out regularly it shouldn’t be a problem. We will invest in some sunflower seeds too.

I’ll be back over to Sichuan in the summer and hopefully by then he’ll have frequent visitors. It’d be very interesting to see what spp are attracted.

Got a question for botany freaks. On my last trip to Liangshan (see above) I have come across a fruit tree that nobody could identify so far. The fruits are 2-3cm in diameter look and taste like ShanZha / Chinese Hawthorn, but are not! The leaves are different and the pit is a single black stone of maybe 5mm diameter, slightly cone-shaped. (Made three full glasses of marmalade from it!)

Any suggestions would be gratefully welcomed.

thx
Roland

Roland, I showed your shrub to a couple of friends of mine who are very knowledgeable about Chinese plants.

There are two suggestions:

An Ardisia sp. (Primulaceae). If you look up A. crenata or A. japonica (one of the 50 Fundamental Herbs according to Wikipedia) you will see very similar plants to your photo, but I think the fruits are too small based on your description. There are however 65 spp in China. Personally I think it’s a member of this genus.

The alternative suggestion is a Photinia sp. (Rosaceae) e.g. Photinia davidiana. Again the fruit of that particular species is probably too small, but there are about 45 spp in the genus. I don’t think it is a Photinia as I don’t believe the fruits are quite right in terms of colour and shape.

The bird bath is a good idea, though I wonder if it’ll become a mosquito breeding habitat. Perhaps if he lets it dry out regularly it shouldn’t be a problem. We will invest in some sunflower seeds too.

I should have mentioned that it is important to clean a bird bath regularly and to provide fresh water in order to avoid the spread of diseases among the bird population. If someone is handy enough, it is even better to have a mister or just water dripping into the birdbath as the birds are even more attracted to 'living' water.

Your comments about bird behavior in the US and Britain were interesting. I had never thought about it, but are bird feeders very common in Britain? I know that 'birding' is even more popular in Britain than in the US, but many people in the US have feeders who never bird outside their own yard and/or really have never worried about learning to ID species. I was just wondering if feeders were more common in the US and hence encouraged more tameness in wild birds.

Yes, thanks for the point about bird bath hygiene as I didn't know about the risk of spreading disease.

It did seem that the waders and passerines that I saw in California were tamer than in the UK, but don’t put much weight on my comment as I’ve only visited the US once and I’m just an occasional birder.

If there is a difference in timidity I’m pretty sure it isn’t due to feeding birds as I think the British may be no 1 at that! According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds website over half of adults in Britain feed birds in their garden. There’s so much on offer that the birds in well provisioned neighbourhoods can afford to be very choosy.

Hi Mark - sorry for delay replying - and yes we all survived the quake. Me and Saker were actually in the swimming pool when it struck, but no tsunami's, we didn't even feel a tremor. However, my wife, at home, said there was a lot of movement, and up in Roland's apartment a light bulb popped out of a socket!!!! But no damage to Roland and family -they were in Germany on their summer hols.

So far looking at the pics of the area our biggest problem will not be damage to the park area, because, again this season no Rufous-headed Robin were found at Jiuzhaigou, which gives very little incentive to visit this crowded and expensive site. However interesting areas found outside the main park have been hit hard - in particular the road leading to the site called fairy ponds. Here there were landslides, apparently cars and busses hit and there were fatalities. This seasons birding from the road gave nesting Sichuan Jay and the usual Blue Eared Pheasants - but this route, winding its way over a high mountain pass, was always prone to landslide and it's anybody's guess whether it will be open next summer. it certainly wont be open this September, the first trip ill be making post-quake in the direction of JZ.

By the way at the moment no foreigners are being given any admittance into Jiuzhaigou

Thought it's time to fresh up this thread! There have been quite a few changes on road and site accessibility in Sichuan.
And, there are some obvious changes in avi-fauna to report as well.

First the roads:
The building of expressways throughout the whole country hasn't stopped yet (I wonder whether it ever will). The expressway from Ya'an to Luding has been accomplished, at the moment it is still toll free and makes Labahe or Erlang Shan reachable in 3h from Chengdu, however only automobiles below a height of 2.2m are admitted yet.

The road up to Balang Shan has been tunneled between Yingxiu and Wolong and therefore it is just a short and smooth drive from Dujiangyan to Wolong. Short, if you manage to find a tourist free window: it is not the latest wisdom that good roads attract even more traffic rather than solving heavy traffic issues. The tunnel underneath the pass section has been opened as well. This is really great for birding above the tunnel entrance: nobody there!!! Last autumn I've seen 40+ Blue Sheep ON the road, and Tibetan Snowcock now stays very close to the road!

The expressway from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou has been granted by the government and is on its way already. It is supposed to shorten the driving time from Chengdu down to 4h one way. It passes Pingwu and leads through the beautiful valley north of Pingwu which I believe is a place where Przevalski's Parrotbill is waiting to be found (still searching)! This project is supposed to be finished by 2022.

Meanwhile the reparation work after the 2017 earthquake in Jiuzhaigou is proceeding slowly and parts of the Jiuzhaigou National Park are open for only a limited number of 2000 visitors per day. You have to book your ticket online and long before (or you ask your hotel to do it for you in advance). However the road between Jiuzhaigou Town and the Gonggangling pass is in rather decent condition.

Wawu Shan was supposed to re-open by May this year, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any sign of accessibility yet.

Longcanggou however is in its last steps before the entire park is going to be opened up for tourism. At the very moment, access beyond the bottom gate is granted only with extra fees and local cars. So you have to swap cars... or you walk the 12km to the first parrotbill site. At the moment it looks as if the mountain top area around the Grey-hooded Parrotbill falls under the jurisdiction of the forestry and their 'Panda releasing' facilities. This location appears to be locked up for normal tourists in the future, however, who knows what's in their mind...
But nothing to worry, there's other well accessible sites for Grey-hooded Parrotbill around.

Tomorrow I am once more going to check out Wood Snipe on Balang Shan, since there haven't been any records from this site recently.
When I am back I hopefully have some time to write up something useful on birds...
Cheers
Roland

Unfortunately, there was no sign of Wood Snipe on Balang Shan – not these days, nor during the last weeks.
But, there’s some good news as well: Rufous-headed Robin is still amongst the living! After a few seasons without seeing or hearing this rare bird in Jiuzhaigou, there were three records in different locations in Sichuan this spring.

Due to conservation reasons there was an agreement to keep the details of the Rufous-headed Robin sites under wrap, for anybody, groups and individuals.
Hopefully the bird is able to stabilize and recover from its obvious disappearance, and will be visible for many more people in the future.

But, there’s some good news as well: Rufous-headed Robin is still amongst the living! After a few seasons without seeing or hearing this rare bird in Jiuzhaigou, there were three records in different locations in Sichuan this spring.

In general, urban birds and resident birds in nature reserves seem to be all in good state, despite huge development projects (such as expressways). Parrotbills and pheasants seem to even be on the rise. In certain areas in Ya’an such as Tianquan or Yingjing I have seen a lot of signs of a governmental anti-poaching campaign. Posters and wallpapers emphasize that wildlife trade, poaching and 'wildlife dishes' are illegal and will be prosecuted. I guess a lot of restaurants will stop or at least minimize their offer of ‘wild chicken soup’. Definitely a good sign, indeed!